Should I opt out of teacher's pension?

Ginger_Red

slummymummyof3 wrote: »

Rather than leaving the profession entirely, have you considered looking for a different position in another school? I don't know what your health reasons are - perhaps you should consider being signed off sick for a period of time in order to aid recovery so that you are able to remain in post and return when you are in better health?

You're being far too reasonable and understanding.

Haven't you realised yet that people don't really come on here looking for helpful advice ? They want rudeness and judgements based on assumptions from the regulars with nothing better to do.

kimbo790

How rude!! Can I please thank those who have posted helpful replies - can I say to those that have posted extremely rude ones that you have no idea what my health reasons are - as a nice commenter pointed out. I did not say that my health reasons were 'stress'. Unfortunately it is a lot more serious than that, although those of you that jumped down my throat and made assumptions seem to have made your own decision that I am crying off work because I find it too difficult. This is not the case and I do not understand why, when I came on for pensions advice I got lifestyle advice/abuse.

Maybe when some of you people out there join 'the real world', you will realise that sometimes people have more serious things to deal with than 'being a bit stressed at work'.

I did not come on this forum to be abused and judged - I came on to ask for advice. I shall be marking the offensive comments as abuse.

Rob_192

kimbo790 wrote: »

I am resigned to the fact that I will need to find myself a far less stressful job asap!

I figure that with less debts, leaving the stable profession of teaching will be less stressful!

My apologies if i was deemed one of the rude ones, but your comments above rather suggested stress was the issue.

kimbo790

No, Rob, my complaint was not with you - thank you for your reply though. I need a different job, on doctor's advice. I just figured that I didn't need to go into details of my illness on a public forum in order to get financial advice.

Rob_192

Quite right, you don't need to go into details.

I think most people are just trying to point out that the teachers pension scheme, final salery and all that is one of the best pensions available and you should cling on to it if possible.

I don't envy you feeling you have to get out of teaching right now - it's a tough world at the moment and oportunities are obviously limited.

I wish you luck in finding employment and also with clearing your debts - if you haven't already visited the 'debt free wanabe' part of this forum you will get some great advice there - the other place I would suggest you try is the Motley Fool website which has a superb 'dealing with debt' forum.

kimbo790

Thank you!! Some sensible comments from reasonable people!!:)

lvader

When someone is on a downward spiral of self destructive behavior the last thing they need is encouragement to make things worse.

kimbo790

Are you referring to how I accumulated my debt? Then please, tell me - how do you think I got it??!!
I would be very interested to know....

Prudent

I would agree with everyone who strongly advises you to stay in the pension scheme, for all the reasons stated.

I teach full time and have an auto immune diesease. Stress can be a big trigger as it further weakens an already fragile immune system. Like you, I have debated leaving teaching for health reasons at points. However despite stress, I really like the job. I now concentrate on strategies for managing my health/ stress.

Some simple things that have made a difference are:

getting help with the housework as this means I can rest more at home. I know there will be a cost for you, but if it means you can keep working it is well worth it.

saying no (without feeling guilty) to some invites. I have talked to my friends and explained it can really impact my health if I don't rest enough. They are great about this and also understand I sometimes have to cancel last minute. This could be very money saving for you too!

talk to the management. I try and limit the huge amount of unpaid overtime that goes with teaching. If I work too long hours my health just dips. I limit my hours so that my attendabce is better. At the end of the day, the management would rather have a teacher in front of the class than you working all weekend.

find something that you really enjoy doing out of school that helps you de-stress. I enter comps. I can really enjoy it, boost my income and forget any of the stresses of the day once I start.

It would be worth getting some support with managing the debt as that must be a big stress in itself.

globetraveller

Ignore the grumps. They probably still think teaching is a 9-3 job.
I do have some understanding of what you are going through. I also won't go into my illness details on a forum but I struggled for 3 or 4 years with my teaching job before I took the plunge and requested going down to a 4 day week. Best thing I did. The medication can control what I have as long as I don't get to the extreme tiredness stage.
If you enjoy teaching then this might be something for you to think about.